Movie Review: Otis

Otis is a direct to video film but I saw it at the Boston Underground Film Festival. I describe it as Saw crossed with Ruthless People though it's more Ruthless People.

Otis (Bostin Christopher) is big and bit dim and kidnaps teenage girls and locks them in his dungeon and pretends to take them to prom. He definitely has problems. Riley (Ashley Johnson), his latest victim seems like the perfect teenager. Her brother is rebellious and gets into trouble. Her mother (Illeana Douglas) is a strong nurse and her father (Daniel Stern) is a weak office drone. All of these characters are more developed than you might expect and are (at first) close to believable. The bumbling FBI Agent Hotchkiss (Jere Burns) doesn't pass this test, he's a caricature of an inept and insensitive cop but Burns is excellently cast, playing yet another variation on his Dear John role. Of course there are news clips and the anchorwoman is equally insensitive and equally well cast is Tracy Scoggins. Kevin Pollak plays Otis' hard-ass brother in a surprisingly convincing and yet underdeveloped role. Pollak, Stern and Douglas bring some cachet to the cast, but Christopher and Johnson are both good in more central roles.

The film is a bizarre mix of situational and character-based comedy interspersed with shocking bits of violence. I was ok with the genre switching but it was 80/20 comedy/torture and it switched shockingly quickly, so I was disturbed that I was laughing.

As an example is when Otis kidnaps Riley. On a street in broad daylight, he throws bag over her head, and throws her in hatchback while there are people not far away. I found the unexpectedness and awkwardness of it funny. Then to keep her quiet he gives her a hard punch to the face to knock her out which stops all the laughs immediately.

This has enough story for about three films. It starts like a torture porn and then goes to a kidnapping story a la Silence of the Lambs, then goes other places.

I saw some parallels to the US and Iraq but didn't think much of it. The director spoke after the film and said that was very much the inspiration and whole point of the film. I found this puzzling since the analogies are limited at best and in some cases played for laughs. I suspect the parallels will be lost on the bulk of it's audience but those who think they might be interested in comedic torture porn will like Otis.